Reader Space: A Hallway To Love

Unfortunately, not many homes are built and blessed with a large entry or mudroom.  A necessary space to greet you when you walk through the door, a place to hang your keys, drop your jacket, line up your boots and stash your mail.  As much as an entire room for these tasks would be fantastic, the ability to create one out of a hallway or unused space is magical!

Emily wrote to me and shared her hallway makeover and I hopped at the opportunity to share it with you, since it was such a lovely and wonderful use of a typically neglected space.

"We feel like we practically doubled our house size, since moving to Texas.  Compared to most, our home is probably not "big"...but it's big to us, and our family of 8 could use all the room we can get.  We have a lot of space and a lot of rooms, and I am a firm believer in getting the most out of every room you can.

Thus brings us to our hallway. {I took inspiration from my best friends entryway.}

Downstairs, off the kitchen and master, we have a very long hallway that takes you to the bathroom and laundry room--then garage. Here's what it looked like prior to us sprucing it up.

In my opinion, it was such a wasted space. {The previous owners had every.single.room in this house the manufacturer tan color.  also known as barf.}

We are in the process of painting all the main areas of the house gray.

We {and by we, I mean Mr. Anderson} added some wainscoting to the walls.  You can get a 10 foot piece at Home Depot for about $18...and they will cut it to your exact measurements for free.  We needed 3 panels across, so we bought 2 pieces at Home Depot.  {We were able to use the remaining piece near our front door, so no piece was wasted!}

{We just used a good old fashioned hammer and nails, plus adhesive on the back of it}  After adding the wainscoting, we put up a chair rail, I think this piece cost us a few dollars. {Color is way off in this photo.}

I painted it a coat of white, it comes white, but it needs a good top coat so you can scrub it.  Especially when your kids smear boogers onto it.  Not that i would know.

 

After painting, we added some hooks, $3 each from Home Depot and voila:

A functioning space for our family.  The kids keep all their backpacks and coats here.  And we hang artwork up above to make it a more happy space.

When you first enter the hallway you see this:

That is our family calendar to the left, and our growth chart to the right.  I also get to see our family picture every time i walk in there.

In the hallway, I also put up magazine holders.  I found these for $2.99 each at Target.  They are not the cutest thing, but they work for the space.  I labeled them each, with the kids who are in school.  This is where their papers go, that i need to keep for whatever reason {i.e. a permission slip that I need to fill out still, homework that isn't due till the end of the week, any papers that Mr. Anderson needs to look at}.  I put it all in these folders, so that they stay off my counters, and don't forever get lost. 

And last but not least, remember our shoe corral?  I really loved that system, but those IKEA bins did not fit in this hallway space, or any other space in our home as shoe bins, so we needed to figure out a different shoe system.  I found these bins at Wal-mart for about $4.00 each...they are stackable, and sit in the corner of our laundry room...each kid gets a bin, oldest to youngest. Voila!

The shoes are out of the way, but most importantly, sorted.  so we aren't fighting over shoes, or losing shoes, etc.

 

So there ya go, our hallway re-do.  Easy peasy and cost us less than $100, including paint and the shoe system."

So darling right?  I love the function and systems put in place, and all for such a budget friendly, smart space utilizing price!  Mama Anderson has it going on! 

I also love that they use the entry as a way to display artwork.  Such a special way to be greeted when entering the home.  

Hugs and thanks to Emily for sharing her inspiring makeover and organizing ideas!  You can find all the details on her beautiful blog here.

What's your favorite part?  Anyone else turning a hallway into a mudroom?  Share your space saving success stories in the comments below!

 ATTENTION!!  Want to be featured in a Reader Space edition?  Have an awesome organizing story to share?  I am looking for projects that have made a positive impact to your life.  Please submit your story and photos here and I would heart to feature them right here, on the blog!!  Photos should be high resolution and unedited.  Please include a description of the project, including any costs, inspiration, and how it has changed your life and routine for the better!  Oh, and no worries my friends, we will NEVER judge "before" pictures because that just wouldn't be nice!  Only love goes on at this blog!